Week 16 Blog: Shift Happens

My initial reaction to this video was... "wow!" The information in the video left me in amazement at house fast our world is advancing and what that means for the human race. I noticed that the video was posted three and a half years ago, which means that the information is quite outdated, so I think that I would be astounded by what they could tell us about today's standards and what is in store for us in another 15 years. One of the most shocking and sad statistics for me was when they showed how much Nintendo invested in research and development and then showed that less than half of that amount was spent on research and innovation of education.

This video made me very unsure about the future, because of how rapidly it is changing and advancing. It is crazy to think that things I was taught in my first year of college could now be outdated - and I'm not even finished with my college career! It is hard to say what our educational system needs to do to prepare for the future, because we aren't even sure what the future really has in store for us. Another thing I found interesting from the video was their information about MySpace. You can tell that this was an older video, because if it was made today, then it would have information about Facebook and how much time people spend on social networking sites. I think the statistic about finding relationships online has most likely increased and will continue to increase, because those sites are becoming more and more popular. Overall, I just found the information in this video to be astounding and it is scary to think of what information would be presented in a video made today.

Week 15 Blog: Urbanization Issues

The two places that I remember living in throughout my life are Centreville, Virginia and Manassas, Virginia, both suburban areas. I lived in Centreville for about five years and don't remember seeing a lot of changes going on. I live very close to my old house, so when I am near that area, there are some changes that I have definitely noticed now. These changes are nothing compared to the changes that have been taking place in Manassas. When we moved into our house 11 years ago, our neighborhood was filled with houses, there was a park down the street, a gas station, and a few other miscellaneous stores only two minutes down the road. Now, driving down the street you see a complete difference. What used to be green hills and trees has now been replaced with a Wal-Mart, endless restaurants and little shops, Shoppers, a new housing complex has gone up behind my neighborhood, and a church was also built. It just amazes me (not necessarily in a good way) how much things have changed around me in the past 10 years or so. Since this is just a small sample of what is taking place in a suburban area, I would like to see the drastic changes that have been made in urban and rural areas as well.

Week 14 Blog: Who Has the Power?

Like I have stated before, I do not like talking about politics or anything closely related to them. Even reading through the different types of theories of democracy, I found it very difficult to form an opinion about what I thought, because I do not know much about our political system. I would mostly agree with the pluralist theory of democracy, stating that "citizens have little or no direct influence on political decision making" (pg. 400). When I think about change, I think of a large group making a change, not really one single person making a change. I think it would be safe to say that every person in the United States could come up with one thing they wanted to change with our government or with society, but one voice is not going to instantly make that change. It is the big political groups that really make voices heard. When it comes to competing interest groups, voices are going to be heard even more, because each group is going to want their point to across and they are going to want it to be louder and more in-your-face than the group next to them, so they will promote their interest even more and do whatever they can to promote the change.

Week 13 Blog: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

I think I went into this weeks topic about Wal-Mart a little bit biased. I have a Wal-Mart literally two minutes down the street from me and I love going there for almost anything that I need. I would say the only thing I don't get from Wal-Mart is jeans and shirts, because of the styles that they have. Also, when I am away at school there is a Wal-Mart within walking distance, so a lot of people, including me, go there for groceries and any other necessities. Part of this is due to convenience, but I also think a lot of it, at least for me, is the price of name brand products they have at Wal-Mart. They always have low prices.

Watching this video, what I've thought for some time now was confirmed, that Wal-Mart is good for America or at least good for other manufacturers. In the video Wal-Mart was portrayed as a bully at times, but the fact of the matter is that they are helping other brands sell products like crazy. This will also positively result in more goods manufactured to sell, the possibility of more jobs, and an increase in sales. Although it seems like Wal-Mart has a bit of a monopoly going on, and this could cause them to hike prices up considerably, they still manage to keep prices extremely low, beating other competitors like K-Mart and Target. I think this speaks volumes, just because of how easily prices could be raised by Wal-Mart.

One of the men who spoke on the video said that Wal-Mart strives to have the best product for the best value and best price and I think this holds true. Although it may not be for every product, Wal-Mart has extremely low prices. The products that are sold are name brand items like Sony, Hanes, and Dell (just to name a few), they are not obscure brands that are sold for cheap. And since these are good products that are sold, the life expectancy is high and the likelihood of problems occurring down the road is slim. With the factors mentioned above, this makes for a recipe for a good, successful company, which Wal-Mart has continually proven to be.

Week 12 Blog: Sociology of the Family

When I was filling out my chart, I thought about how my chart probably isn't as typical as other families. My parents are divorced and my siblings and I live with my dad, so the duties of the house are divided amongst the four of us. When my parents were still together, although my siblings and I were still young, I was able to tell that my mother did more of the household chores and my dad was the breadwinner and worked. Since I am 21 and my youngest sibling is only 10, we all are able to help my dad out and do work around the house, and, in fact, are expected to help because we are part of the family. Primarily, my dad cooks dinner, does maintenance around the house, pays bills, and takes my brother to sporting activities. Since my sister and I are older, we are more independent and are able to do things on our own, like drive ourselves to work, get up and pack our own lunches, and cleaning our rooms/bathroom and designated parts of the house. It is weird to see my boyfriend and his family and their interactions and duties shared around the house, because they aren't really shared. His mom stays at home and cooks, cleans, and does almost all the household duties. It's hard for me to just put my dish on the kitchen counter and let his mom do all of the dishes from dinner, when I'm used to helping clean up, or at the very least, rinsing my dishes and putting them right into the dishwasher. Since I have been so independent for so long now, it is also weird how adults my age can still be dependent on their parents for so many things. I know girls that work with me that have their lunch packed by their mom, some parents will get up and make their kids breakfast, and others are paying rent, accessories, and clothes for their kids. I guess it depends on how a child was brought up in a family that determines which duties they are used to or what is considered 'normal' for them.

Week 11 Blog: Religion

I will start out this blog entry by saying that I find it very hard to talk about religion, especially when it involves society and the government. I think it is because I don't know what I fully believe and I think there are so many pros and cons to different issues the U.S. faces, so it is always impossible for me to pick a side.

The topic I will talk about this week is whether or not I think that the U.S. and/or the world is becoming more secular. This is something that I feel somewhat comfortable talking about, so I would say that I think there are parts of the world that are becoming more secular (the U.S.) and other parts that may be becoming less secular throughout the world. Now, this could be just because I am getting older and I am more aware of things going on around me, but I feel like more people have opinions about things. An example of this is saying the pledge of allegiance in school. Within the last seven years or so, there has been talk about not saying the pledge because it has the word 'God' in it. Going into high school is when I started seeing students not saying the pledge, now whether or not this was for religious reasons is yet to be discovered. I think society is going to be happier with being more secular, because everyone has a different view of things. If an issue were to address religion in it, then a lot of people would be unhappy, feeling like they would have to follow a doctrine that involves religion, especially if they are not religious. If an issue just doesn't address religion then everyone has the option of bringing religion into it or not.

As for different parts of the world, although I haven't even been out of the U.S. and can only speculate about this, I think there are probably parts that are becoming less secular. Things like poverty and hunger may play a factor in this. As more parts of the world encounter natural disasters, poverty, and hunger, they may turn to their religion and pray more, asking for help in their time of need.

Week 10 Blog: A Tale of Two Families

This week I read the stories of two young boys, one white and one black, and how they got to where they are now. Both had two very different paths that lead them to where they are now. I am a mix of German/Hispanic and can identify most with the story of Byron Green, although there are some differences. First, I have grown up in predominantly white neighborhoods, unlike Byron who grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly African American.

I can relate to his struggles, because I feel like my family has had to work hard to be where we are now. I felt like the other man had a lot of things handed to him: a private university education fully paid for, help paying for his house, and because of this he never had to worry about any debt. I am on the opposite side where my parents may have had privileges of white family, but we were not well off like the white family was. Since my grandparents had debt, this also carried on to my mom and dad and then on to me. Because my parents haven't had a surplus of money they were able to help me through college for my first two years with equity from the house, but I have take on my last two years, plus car payments, and apartment payments. This gets me worried for my future with a husband and children, because I don't want my burdens to become theirs. I hope to eventually be able to help them pay for college themselves so they can save their money for kids later on.